There is no simple way to describe how schools receive money and are funded in the U.S. The entire process is an Alice in Wonderland experience, which is to say that falling down the rabbit hole could very well make more sense to the average person.

First, it is vitally important to understand that nothing is free. Nothing. Everything has a cost. Finding that cost can be a bit of long search, but the cost is there.

With that as a baseline, the rest of the picture bounces between federal funding and requirements, state funding and requirements, and local funding and requirements.

It is safe to say that these three entities do not have to follow each others guidelines, nor do the guidelines have to suffer agreement. Even the hierarchy of who dictates what to whom is about as clear as a well mixed mud pie.

Considering that a small school district, with around 1,000 students, in California, may currently have a budget that is around $6 million, and large districts have large multiples of that figure, when calculated for all the districts in the U.S., the cost of schools is a very large sum of money, measured in the billions of dollars.

Every state funds its schools differently. Every district in turn funds its schools differently. Each local school has different priorities and mixes of students along the socio-economic scale, and spends money differently.

That is a lot of “differently’s”. Throw in federal contributions of money and regulations, and the chaos mounts.

What is very clear is that any state or local district that accepts federal money is required to adhere to the federal rules that go along with that money.

This where “nothing is free” comes in. It’s all tax money, no matter who it comes from. The last free ride anyone had was in the baby buggy.

Long history dictates that the money must be accounted for and dynamically looked after. Greed is not confined to the private sector by any means.

Currently there does seem to be interest in granting local districts local authority to spend allocated monies on each unique budget.

If each school was funded equitably, throughout the U.S., perhaps that could be a decent direction to take. They aren’t, and it’s enough to cause migraines thinking about how to make that first step happen.

Therein lies the problem. Whenever large sums of money are at stake, those with lots of it want to keep it. Those without so much want more. There is no level of ethics or intestinal fortitude involved in the process.

For any substantive change to happen, the national, state, and local district policies need to be much more closely aligned. The vast differences in school districts, and schools within those districts, throughout the U.S., have to be recognized.

It is a complicated process that requires careful consideration, perhaps most especially to the law of unintended consequences.

Considering the amount of money involved, the caveat might well be to always follow the money.